“Ross Lovelock’s major gift lies in his obsession with objectivity. His combination of curiosity and

humour, a reliance on hard facts and a quick impatience for rhetoric, have over and again proved

invaluable in helping organizations correctly pinpoint and address their toughest challenges.”

David W. Henderson , Chief Talent Officer and SVP, Human Resources MetLife

“Ross Lovelock, an incredible creative and passionate CEO with huge intellectual capacity who

knows the real business world inside out and who delivers the SCQuARE content in such an

entertaining and powerful way that you can’t step away from training without being infected by the

SCQuARE way of thinking.”

Ulf Werkmeister, Vice President, Human Resources, Unilever DACH

“Ross is an acquired taste. I’ve been happy to acquire him to work on a number of important

business challenges over the last decade. Like a fine wine, uncork him, let him and the team breathe

and enjoy the taste of a completed plan and empowered team.”

Vince Robinson, President, Nestle Walmart, USA

“SCQuARE enabled our organization to reduce the time dedicated to developing our annual

strategic plan from 6 weeks to 6 days. Moreover, the SCQuARE Framework ensures that all

strategies are spelt out in absolute terms so that we constantly deliver on time and budget while

delivering the business growth required.”

Lindsay Kelly, Managing Director, EXIMO, Australia

“The investment in SCQuARE repaid itself in the first 6 months. It reduced our ‘Planning for

Growth’ cycle by over 50% . . . and that is being conservative. All of those that undertook SCQuARE

were able to more rapidly identify the key problem or opportunity and address it rather than

wasting time on solving the wrong problem.”

Dominique Pomario, HR Manager, Recruitment & Development, Flight Centre Australia

“Quite simply, SCQuARE works. After we introduced it, incredibly 9 out of 10 targets have been

won! SCQuARE has proved a great sales tool.”

Rod Hyde, Head Of Consumer Finance, HSBC Australia

“I’m surprised to report that this is the single, best training of this type that I’ve ever attended.

Many courses are useful, some are even interesting, but this one’s value for the time spent is

unparalleled. Thank you! We need to implement this corporate-wide.”

Debra Barker, Global Head of Clinical and Medical Services, Novartis A.G.

“From my perspective, the benefits of SCQuARE for us have been threefold: improved critical

thinking skills, a consistent way to frame a business case for action, and more efficient

communications and decision-making.”

Don DeGolyer, President, Sandoz USA

“SCQuARE enabled us to work through one of our most difficult challenges . . . The creation of a

Global Brand Import model for Wal-Mart . . . this is now done and set to deliver an instant ROI.”

JC Jove, VP Global Accounts, PepsiCo

“SCQuARE is a near-perfect tool for strategic planning.”

Seni Adetu, Group Managing Director & CEO, East African Breweries Limited

“I think we all agree that this is a wonderful workshop for us to map out strategy for Revlon China.

All of this is done collaboratively and intensively.”

Edward Yu, General Manager, Revlon, China

“SCQuARE enabled us to achieve in four days what would normally take six months!”

David Teasdale, SVP & Asia Managing Director, Revlon

“I first came to experience SCQuARE back in 2008 when I was working with another organization as

head of training. I was delightfully surprised that the elements of SCQuARE were quite similar to

what I practised in the Army, called Combat Appreciation. SCQuARE gives me breadth and depth

in looking at issues and providing the platform for me to process my thoughts to influence my

stakeholders. Hence, in January 2013, I was fortunate to be able to share this experience with my

new team members in PETRONAS, and was happy to note, they feel the same way too.”

Noor Iskandar Hashim, Director, Advanced Leadership Development Division, PETRONAS

Leadership Centre, Malaysia

“SCQuARE is the best formal training course that I have attended in my career.

It changed the way I think about problems, enabling better solutions and making the process much

quicker and less painful. I wish everyone had this knowledge, so that we can save time on endless

discussions . . . SCQuARE eliminates these vicious circles.”

Igor Makarov, Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, The Walt Disney Company CIS LLC,

Russia

“Attending the SCQuARE programme will go down as one of the most memorable events in my

career.”

Rajdeep Dattagupta, Planning Director, Pepsi, India

“Ross Lovelock is a very clever and experienced consultant with whom I have worked in the past.

His methods are innovative, creative and, above all, work to the benefit of his clients. Any book by

Ross is as good as a book by the great Dr Eliyahn Goldratt.”

Professor Malcolm McDonald, Emeritus Professor, Cranfield School of Management

“Ross is an inspirational leader of change. He truly has a unique style that engages, challenges and

inspires people to be better leaders in today’s complex and challenging business world.”

Simon Hay, Global CEO, dunnhumby

The SCQuARE way to better business planning and decision making

ROSS LOVELOCK

THE ONE

THING

YOU

Need

To KNOW

This edition published in 2013 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

© 2013 Ross Lovelock

Registered office

John Wiley and Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ,

United Kingdom

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how

to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at

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Previous editions published in 2007 and 2012 by SQUARE International Limited.

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with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-118-65316-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-118-75567-9 (ebk) ISBN 978-1-118-75566-2 (ebk)

Set in 10/17.4 pt Cronos Pro by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited, Hong Kong

Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

DEDICATION

To David Jones, Peter Kendall and Wayne Mailloux

Three mentors who gave me a chance in my career when nobody

else would. Without their help and friendship I would not have

started SCQUARE and this book would not have been written.

vii

Contents

FOREWORD viii

PREFACE x

WHYYOUSHOULDREADTHISBOOK xix

1. MAKINGTHECRITICALDIFFERENCE 1

2. STARTINGWITHTHESETTING 23

3. UNDERSTANDINGTHECONSEQUENCES 45

4. DEFININGTHEPIVOTALQUESTION 63

5. FINDINGTHERIGHTANSWER 85

6. MAKINGTHEANSWERWORK 101

7. TELLINGAPOWERFULSTORY 121

8. THEONE-CHANCEPITCH 147

9. BREAKER;BIGIDEASREALISED 169

10. GLOBALLEADERSINSTRATEGIC,CREATIVE&

PERSUASIVETHINKING 187

ABOUTTHEAUTHOR 190

INDEX 192

‘I’ve got a lunchtime presentation

tomorrow and my boss says he

expects the usual tripe.

Do you have any?’

ix

AT the heart of most businesses are people. In competitive markets, the

organisations that win are those that are best at listening to and

communicating with people.

Dialogue with customers is widely recognised as critical for business success.

It is generally accepted that the organisation that is not listening to its customers

is doomed to failure.

Equally important is dialogue with colleagues. Listening to colleagues is central

to our way of working at Sainsbury’s, whether via our ‘Tell Justin’ suggestion

scheme or via the everyday discussions and projects of our management teams.

We have found that to help these management discussions and projects to

be really productive – to help our people get everyone on the same page and get

to yes – our managers benefit from a common and structured approach.

We have engaged the services of SCQUARE International over a number of

years and the SCQuARE process is an extremely sound approach to ensuring that

ideas, strategies and plans are robustly developed.

Importantly, when the SCQuARE process is shared more widely then it helps

the alignment levels within the business. But, above all, SCQuARE ensures that the

really bright ideas and plans get through the corporate maze to the top and this

means better business, more motivated people and greater value creation.

Foreword from Justin King

Chief Executive, J. Sainsbury Plc

Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many

people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The

power of a car is separate from how it is driven.

Edward de Bono

‘Listen, I’ve got far too many

worries to start worrying about

worrying too much!’

xi

NOW that I am in my fifties, when I look back on my career I see

successes and failures and sometimes, great hopes dashed.

I look back on times of different tempos – sometimes smooth and exhilarating

and sometimes scary and worrying. But through all of these things I am reminded

that worries get resolved and problems are sorted out – it’s all the normal to and

fro of all normal lives and normal people.

Even great men keep a sense of perspective. Sir Winston Churchill writing in

Their Finest Hour recalls his worries about the progress of WWII and the problems

in Europe. With his renowned wit he reminds us:

‘When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of

the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of

trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.’

and then, with true perspective, he goes on to plan for and lead the country to

what we now recall as our finest hour.

PREFACE

Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If

you don’t have any problems you don’t get any seeds

Norman Vincent Pearle

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO KNOW

xii

Yes, worries and problems are the ‘stuff’ of life and the ‘stuff’ of careers and

work – and like the old man in the story, you will have a lot of troubles that never

happen! But, there are some troubles that you should not have and these are the

main inspirations which prompted me to write this book and try to capture the

word and the spirit of our approach to ideas, planning and persuading others.

Why I wrote this book

I wrote this book for four main reasons. First, early in my career I learnt a simple

truth, a truth that has never let me down in over 25 years – simply being right,

simply being logical, simply having all the facts, is not being persuasive.

Truly, the best ideas in the world are totally useless if you can’t convince others

to see what you see!

It occurred to me, very early on, that there is a synergy between ideas, plans

and persuasion that creates the possibility of sound leadership and innovation

– the two cornerstones of successful business. This insight led me to develop the

SCQuARE process of turning good ideas into good plans and then convincing

others of the way I was thinking. I hope that this book will help you to develop

this powerful synergy.

Secondly, as I progressed in my career my jobs became bigger and my

responsibilities grew. I even found that my ideas became bigger and my solutions

became bolder – and sometimes even very risky! Like others before me I was

maturing into, hopefully, a well-rounded leader. At each step in my growth a

phenomenon became more apparent. I failed when I did not pay attention to

aligning everyone’s expectations and goals and I succeeded when I did.

Again, it was a lesson in leadership – I can achieve only when others can also

achieve and for this synergy to prosper I must invest time in all the aligning

processes. Or more colloquially, I must invest time in getting everyone on the

same page.

PREFACE

xiii

Thirdly, I became increasingly frustrated with observing some companies using

very expensive management consultants to create ideas, plans and strategies for

implementation by the company’s managers. Why weren’t these being created by

the managers themselves?

At first I thought it was because the consultants were more skilled, but this

was not so. Did the consultants have better access to ideas and data? No, this was

not the case. Eventually, it occurred to me that the reasons were much simpler.

The managers had the ideas, the skills, the confidence – they had everything that

was required – except for the training to drive their ideas through the corporate

maze and persuade others that their ideas and plans were good. This book is a

humble attempt to make this training and critical skill more widely available.

Finally, and probably the most important, I know that there are thousands

upon thousands of good young people in industry with an awful lot more to offer

if they could only express their ideas better and get their ideas through the

corporate maze to YES.

Every minute of every day, great ideas are lost and high potential careers are

stalled just because our young people are not trained in how to create an idea,

turn it into a plan and then sell the idea and plan to their bosses. Importantly,

their bosses are not trained in how to recognise an excellent idea, how to know

a good plan from a bad plan and how to say YES when it is fully deserved. And

so the negative cycle continues.

Imagine the productivity waste and personal frustrations that result from this,

the loss of competitiveness and the loss to the economy. In fact, immeasurable

loss to all, just because we haven’t used our imagination and made the effort to

guide and train people at work in the basic philosophy and skill to create ideas,

turn them into good plans and then sell these ideas and plans to their bosses –

the basic skills of getting the right ideas accepted and getting everyone on the

same page.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO KNOW

xiv

SCQuARE gives you the power to solve these problems. Across the globe

thousands of talented managers from many of the world’s largest and best

performing companies utilise this skill everyday. It has been a privilege to help

executives – from experienced CEOs to first day managers – understand how to

use SCQuARE, and in doing so, watch their careers blossom. This has also allowed

us the luxury of building a truly international business, for which we are very

grateful.

Introducing the SCQuARE mnemonic

At this stage I would like to give you an overview of the approach I am taking in

this book to address some of the important problems and frustrations that I have

just described.

The core process in the book is described by the SCQuARE mnemonic – it

stands for Setting, Consequences, pivotal Question, Answer, Recommendations

and Evidence.

The ‘S’ and the ‘C’ are the analysis stages. The setting ‘S’ is the first part of

the analysis, where you investigate and build up a complete view of all the

important and relevant positive factors that are related to the aim of your plan.

The second stage of your analysis is to identify any factors that have changed and

any factors that could complicate your progress towards your aim. In particular,

you need to thoroughly understand and identify the consequences ‘C’ to any

changes and complications.

Following this analysis stage you then begin the synthesis stage. This starts

with identifying a fundamental question – or pivotal question ‘Qu’ – around

which all the analysis ‘turns’. This question leads to the best answer ‘A’ to your

issues. You then build your answer into more detailed recommendations ‘R’ and

PREFACE

xv

you then provide real and strong evidence ‘E’ for your recommendations. Finally,

you create a persuasive and compelling story that brings together all your work.

Both the strength of the process and the strength of the content navigate your

ideas through to YES.

Who should read and use this book

As I was writing this book I had my potential readers in my mind’s eye.

My primary reader and user I envisaged to be a manager, probably in their first

or second job with real responsibility – full of intelligence and talent and still full

of enthusiasm. I wanted to help these managers before they lost some of their

natural talent in the frustrating corporate maze.

These managers could be working in any sector – from heavy engineering to

consumer product retailing, from public service to legal services. They could be

working for any size of organisation but most likely they would be working for

large organisations and in particular very large international organisations that rely

heavily upon virtual teamwork or matrix teamwork. Most certainly, they could be

from any country where managerial-type work is well established.

My secondary readers were the bosses of these talented managers. They too

have ideas that get lost in the maze and so on up the chain of command. I wanted

to provide a little hope before any cynicism sets in. Working together could lead

to wholly new directions and energies.

Finally, I wrote the book for the CEO and the leadership team. The SCQuARE

process is a very effective intervention that does address all the problems of the

corporate maze and many of the important issues of alignment. I know from client

experience that SCQuARE makes a powerful contribution and it does improve

productivity and competitiveness.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO KNOW

xvi

How to get the best out of this book

There are different ways of reading this book depending upon your needs. First, I

need to describe the parts of the book.

Chapters two to seven are the ‘heart’ of the book – these are the chapters

that provide you with both conceptual learning and practical skills. These chapters

have a reading text, an illustrative case study and an opportunity for you to do

your own project.

If you are reading and using the book to get an in-depth view and practical

skill then I would recommend that you follow the book sequentially, studying the

case study in depth and also doing your own project either as you go or after you

have finished reading the book.

If you are reading the book to get a real insight into the process then you can

follow each chapter and the case study sequentially, but don’t do your own

project. If you just want an overview, then chapter one explains the main principles

that underpin the SCQuARE process.

In any event the reading task is quite low. Most chapters can be read and

studied within one half hour.

Also, you are not alone with the book. As a service to readers I have introduced

a readers’ advice line. If you have any queries or need any help then please call.

The advice line number, which is open during normal UK office hours, is +44

(0)845 0800 888.

Acknowledgements

Writing this book and developing my international business would not have been

possible without the support, faith and constructive suggestions of many senior

executives who were prepared to give my ideas and my business a chance. To all, I

owe a debt of gratitude.

PREFACE

xvii

I would like to give special thanks to Paul Adams of British American Tobacco,

Peter Krogh of FilmNet and Karen Guerra of Colgate-Palmolive, all ex-PepsiCo

colleagues, without whose faith in our first year of business we would probably have

never got started. Don Goulding, Nick Blazquez, Seni Adetu, Gerald Mahinda and

Ekwunife Okoli, five guys from Diageo who recognized that to really win you had to

get everyone on the same page and turn strategy into action, which they certainly did.

Kim Stratton and Luc Hermans of Novartis for letting us show them how to get the

detail of ‘War and Peace’ into a presentation the size of a postage stamp.

Vince Robinson of Nestlé – Vince for being the world record holder for SCQuARE

attendance, as well as giving us the perfect description, ‘the consultant’s worst

nightmare’.

Keith Wishart, Nick Garland, Ulf Werkmeister, Ray Hazley, Massimo Ambrosini,

Gary Booker, Leandro Berrone, David Johnston and Don DeGolyer for being bigger

believers in SCQuARE than me, and taking us around the globe with numerous multi-

national giants. Paul Arnold, formerly of Saatchi and Saatchi, for telling the world he

had found a tool to liberate creativity. Simon Hay of dunnhumby, a true SCQuARE

fan who has built a successful global business, as well as becoming a great golfing host.

Frans Hijkoop and David Henderson for recognising the value of SCQuAREing HR

in many parts of the world. Mark Fairweather and Nigel Toon for quite simply making

SCQuARE the way of working of Allied Bakeries. I wish to make a special mention of

thanks to Paul Wilkinson, Sri, Sue Harrison, Terry Goodyear and Jem Turner who have

been with me almost from the start and whose contributions to the intellectual

development of SCQUARE International have been immense and to Tracy Rose for

her input improvements and tireless editing.

Finally, an immense thank you to Justin King of Sainsbury’s for being a great

supporter and for his very generous words in the foreword.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO KNOW

xviii

OK, we’re all here now, so let’s get on with it!

Also, I would like to thank James Noon for his collaboration in the writing of this

book. Eventually, we did ‘get on the same page’ and we did have good fun bringing it

all together into book form.

Last but not least, I would like to thank my team at SCQUARE, past and present.

Quite simply, without them we would have no business.

Their dedication, creativity, professionalism and willingness to tackle any task, in

every corner of the globe, are the reasons why SCQUARE has so many valued clients

and why the business is a success. Ultimately, they are the inspiration for this book.

xix

SCQUARE International under the leadership of the author Ross Lovelock have

for twenty years provided many of the world’s leading companies the skill of

SCQuARE enabling their people to create plans that command a decision in a

fraction of the time of normal working practices. This book explains how it is done

– equipping you with the single most important skill necessary to reach the top

of any organisation – the ability to create and sell fool-proof plans.

The fundamental skill

Since the industrial revolution, competitive advantage has been driven by having

a workforce with the ability to convert a company vision into workable plans – it

is quite simply the most fundamental skill for long-term prosperity. Despite the

mystique that people love to associate with such a skill there are only three critical

things that matter:

● Identifying the right question

● Finding the right answer

WHY YOU SHOULD READ

THIS BOOK

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO KNOW

xx

● Building a crystal clear story enabling the audience to take a decision and

make progress.

It is that simple. . . .

Yet, ask any executive irrespective of experience or industry what is the bane

of their business life and you will almost certainly get the reply ‘Sitting in seemingly

never ending meetings listening to people present tome-like documents with no

end in sight where often the only outcome is to plan yet another meeting’.

BBC research in July 2011 asked 1000 people the question: ‘What would you

rather do than sit through a PowerPoint presentation?’

● 20% said they would prefer to visit the dentist

● 18% would rather fill out their tax return

● 24% stated they would prefer to give up sex for the day

Why are many meetings such a painful ordeal?

Unless you have worked at one of the main strategic consultancies, you almost

certainly will not have been provided with the skills to create and sell strategic

plans. Often this crucial activity is reduced to filling in company templates resulting

in outputs so devoid of narrative and interpretation that they are meaningless.

‘Complexity is the refuge for the mediocre, but “Simplicity is the ultimate

sophistication” ’

Leonardo Da Vinci

If you want to reach the top then read this book because as the Harvard Professor

Anthony Gardner says ‘The ability to tell a story is the key to leadership’ but that